Baked Falafels and Mediterranean Salad

9/8/15

Nathalie and I absolutely love Mediterranean food, but we definitely don't have it enough. In fact, one of our favourite restaurants in Toronto is Byblos, a Mediterranean-style restaurant and lounge in the entertainment district, and we definitely don't go there enough. We could eat olives and pita bread for days, and who doesn't love feta cheese? Anyway, moving on…

These Baked Falafels are the answer to your weekly meal prep. The recipe below makes about 20 falafels (more if you make the patties smaller) and are perfect for packing in your lunch as a snack on their own, or as the main source of protein in a salad.

The falafels are so full of flavour from the blended fresh ingredients–think parsley, red onion, garlic and lemon zest–and the Mediterranean salad is the perfect, quickly put together accompaniment. I threw together this salad sort of at the last minute, thinking of my favourite Mediterranean-style veggies and flavours.

The salad is so simple, made up of tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, olives and lemon juice. It sorts of parallels a parsley taboule, and you could add quinoa to it and omit the pita if you want to make this meal gluten free.

So simple, but so yummy…and just as good for leftovers the next day! Lemon juice helps to preserve the veggies in the salad so you don't have a soggy lunch after a night in the fridge.

Baked Falafels and Mediterranean Salad

These Baked Falafels pair perfectly with this Mediterranean olive, tomato and parsley salad-don't forget the pita!

Prep Time20mins

Cook Time25mins

Total Time45mins

Course: Mediterranean

Servings: 4

Ingredients

Falafels

1can chickpeas15 oz.

1/2red onionchopped

3clovesgarlicchopped

1/3cupfresh parsley

1tsplemon zestoptional

1tspsalt

2tspbaking powder

1/3cupwhole wheat flour

1/4cupuncooked quinoa

Mediterranean Salad

1/2cupchopped kalamata olives

1/2cupchopped tomato

2cupschopped parsley

1/2cupchopped cucumber

1tbsplemon juice

1tspsalt

1/2tsppepper

1/4cupcrumbled feta cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In food processor or blender, blend all falafel ingredients together. It will be a somewhat long process, but don't be tempted to add any water! We added lemon juice the first time and it was a disaster, the patties wouldn't cook.

Place pattie mixture in the freezer for about 20 min to harden mixture. Remove and carefully form into small 2 inch patties using flour on your hands to keep it from sticking.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil on high and fry patties for 3 min each side, then remove from heat and set aside on paper towels.

Place 10 on each baking sheet and cook in oven for 25 min.

Meanwhile, make the Mediterranean salad by preparing all vegetables, tossing in lemon juice and seasoning with salt and pepper.

About Taylor Stinson

Hey there, my name's Taylor! I’m the founder of The Girl on Bloor, a food blog where I share healthy meal prep recipes for busy people. I'm a busy city girl living in downtown Toronto on (you guessed it!) Bloor Street. I also run the awesome 5-Day Meal Prep Challenge, which is a free email course and Facebook group where I share my meal planning strategies and easy meal prep tips and recipes. Be sure to check out my free beginner’s guide to meal prep and follow me on YouTube and Instagram to get my latest recipes and healthy eating inspiration.